Addington gets stakes boost

The New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club has raised its minimum stakes to $10,000 for all races at Addington Raceway from August 1.

The move follows a distribution boost to the racing codes from the New Zealand Racing Board on the back of ‘‘extremely positive operating results here at the raceway itself’’, club chairman Barry Dent said.

The increases have been applied across the board, so horses of any rating, from non-winners to the best pacers and trotters in the country, get their chance. Some races, past the nonwin level, will have stakes between $13,499 and $14,400.

All races during New Zealand Cup week will run for a minimum of $25,000, while all Group II and Group III races and a small number of Group I features will also have stake increases for the new season.

‘‘Our board believe it is important the stakes/bonus increases are applied across the entire horse population to ensure that not only the first win makes it more viable for owners but there are solid attractive opportunities to race their horse many more times in New Zealand,’’ Dent said.

‘‘Paying attention to one class of horse in a disproportional manner will in our view inevitably lead to an imbalance in the horse supply and we will end up paying an even greater penalty as an industry further down the road’’ he said.

‘‘No one goes to the yearling sales to buy a horse that will end up winning one race so we believe it is important that we keep pace with the international level of prize money at the elite end of our sport.’’